Piaggio was founded by Rinaldo Piaggio in Pontedera in 1884 and its core business was manufacturing naval furnishing and, then, railway carriages. In 1917 Piaggio started to build aircraft and during World War I they manufactured ant submersible motor-boats (MAS), planes and seaplanes. After the end of WorldWar II they stopped this kind of production and started to manufacture two-wheelers: in 1946 the first one, called “Vespa”, was an immediate success.
In 1948 the “Ape”, a three-wheeled vehicle, was launched, and 1967 was the year of the “Ciao”, that marked a technical and stylistic change in the sector of light mobility.
The “Ciao”
In the early 80’s, Piaggio was an industrial group that operated on a large productive and commercial horizon: from scooters to mopeds, to motorbikes, to bicycles, to commercial three-wheeled vehicles such as Ape and Porter. In 1989 the “Sfera”, the first Piaggio scooter with plasticized body, was launched and then, in 1994, Piaggio launched on the market the “Hexagon” a kind of vehicle that became a trend-setter.
The “Hexagon”
The brands presently owned by the company are Piaggio (scooters and mopeds, commercial vehicles), Aprilia, Moto Guzzi, Gilera and Derbi.
In 1999 the Piaggio business was taken over by Morgan Grenfell Private Equity. In 2003 the entrepreneur R. Colaninno, present chairman, took control of the company.
In 2005 Piaggio started to operate on the Chinese market with the production of “Shuny” (elegance) in joint venture with Zongshen.
Today Piaggio is one of the main world’s manufacturers of motorized 2 and 3 wheelers, in fact it is the first European producer and one of the four most important world players in this sector. Its brand of products ranges from 50 to 1200cc.
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